We love a good, New York–style cheesecake: luxurious, creamy, and redolent of cherries. In this recipe, we throw in some boozy cherries to complement the creaminess of the ice cream base. In our stores we use Griottines, cherries macerated in eau-de-vie or kirsch, but you can just as successfully use morello cherries or any brandied cherries you have on hand. If you’ve never made brandied cherries, we can’t recommend it enough; it’s easy and so satisfying to have a batch of your own in the fridge. You’ll have brandied cherries left over—a high-quality problem to have. Fold them into ice cream, tuck them into bread pudding, or add them to a much-needed old-fashioned at the end of the week. If you choose not to make your own brandied cherries, substitute ½ cup store-bought brandied cherries—drain them, reserving the liquid, and chop before adding to the ice cream as directed.
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
Immersion blender
FOR THE BRANDIED CHERRIES
½ cup (100 grams) sugar
¼ plump vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out
Generous pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Pinch of kosher salt
½ cup cherry juice or water (see Ben’s Note)
1 cup kirsch or brandy
1 pound (454 grams) cherries, stemmed and pitted, if you like
FOR THE CHERRY CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM
1½ cups heavy cream
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons whole milk
½ cup (100 grams) sugar
¼ teaspoon (1 gram) kosher salt
6 large egg yolks
½ cup cream cheese
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
It might seem annoying that we give you such odd measurements, like “2 cups and 2 tablespoons.” But having tested and retested small batches of these ice creams, we found certain measurements consistently give just about the perfect ice cream. And while it seems like a pain to add another 2 tablespoons of milk to your liquids, it’s a small step to take to get your ice cream from a bit too “chewy” to perfectly toothsome. We hope you agree.
1. To make the brandied cherries, in a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, vanilla bean seeds and pod, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and cherry juice. Bring the liquid to a low simmer over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring, until the sugar has fully dissolved. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the kirsch followed by the cherries. Transfer the cherries and their liquid to canning jars. Let cool to room temperature, then seal the jars and refrigerate for at least 48 hours (these cherries may be stored in the fridge for several months) before using.
2. To make the cherry cheesecake ice cream, pour the cream and milk into a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water). Whisk in the sugar and the salt and stir until they have dissolved. Warm the mixture until you see steam rising from the top.
3. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, with a kitchen towel underneath it to prevent slipping, whisk together the egg yolks until uniform. While whisking, add a splash of the hot dairy mixture to the yolks. Continue to add the dairy mixture, whisking it in bit by bit, until you’ve added about half. Add the yolk mixture to the remaining dairy mixture in the double boiler. Set the heat under the double boiler to medium and cook the custard, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon and reducing the heat to medium-low as necessary, until steam begins to rise from the surface and the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Hold the spoon horizontally and run your finger through the custard. If the trail left by your finger stays separated, the custard is ready to be cooled.
5. Strain the custard into a bowl and add in the cream cheese and vanilla, stirring until the cream cheese has melted. Using an immersion blender, buzz the custard until emulsified. Place the bowl over the prepared ice bath and stir for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the custard has cooled. Transfer the custard to a quart-size container, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.
6. Meanwhile, measure out ½ cup of the brandied cherries with their liquid. Drain the cherries, reserving the liquid, and chop them. Set aside the chopped cherries and the liquid separately.
7. Pour the chilled custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Place the container in which you refrigerated the custard in the freezer so you can use it to store the finished ice cream. Churn the ice cream until the texture resembles “soft serve.” In the last minute of churning, add the reserved ½ cup chopped cherries and churn for 1 minute to incorporate. Transfer the ice cream to the chilled storage container and freeze until hardened to your desired consistency. Alternatively, you can serve it immediately—it will be the consistency of gelato.
8. In a small saucepan, bring ½ cup of the cherry liquid to a simmer over medium heat and cook until reduced and thickened, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Drizzle the syrup over the ice cream before serving. The ice cream will keep, frozen, for up to 7 days.
ben’s note When you pit cherries (or defrost frozen cherries), you wind up with some cherry juice as a result. Instead of discarding it, you should use it for these brandied cherries—it will give more of that cherry flavor to the final product. Whatever you lack in juice, you can make up with water.